On Feb. 11, the Philadelphia Daily News reports the closing of a number of local community newspapers including the Germantown Courier and the Mt. Airy Times. The future of print journalism and the Internet is one of the topics of the Charlie Rose Show this evening on Channel #13. Or view it later in the […]
Tag: News and Commentary
Is F & M’s campus worth only ½ the cost of Convention Center Project?
Information received from the City of Lancaster established the total tax assessment for the campus and all of the other taxable and non-taxable real estate owned by Franklin and Marshall College at $63,824,800. Each year the State Board of Real Estate Tax Equalization provides and updated ratio of Assessments to Market Values for each county. […]
F & M contributes 1/3 of exempt real estate taxes
NewsLanc asked the City of Lancaster what Franklin and Marshall College was voluntarily paying towards real estate taxes that, if not exempt, would be levied on F & M’s properties. The response from Patrick S. Hopkins, Business Administrator, is 33% for the past year, provided the value of what F & M considers to be […]
Commissioners accept no credit for Solanco Trail resolution
NewsLanc interviewed Commissioner Scott Martin concerning the good news in the Feb 5th New Era that “Entire Solanco rail line will open to public.” The former rail line easement and future hiking and biking trail extends 23 miles from east to west across the southern portion of the county. Martin said that All three commissioners […]
Lancaster piano duo feted in Budapest
Well known respected duo pianists and the heads of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Michael Jamanis and wife Fran Veri kept a busy schedule on Monday and Tuesday, visiting faculty and students at the Zoltan Kodaly and Bela Bartok primary and secondary music schools. They were both very impressed with the dedication of the teachers […]
Highlights to date of LCCCA series
The owner of Growth Business Development, Daniel J. Logan of Medford, N.J., was paid more than $122,000 over a 12-month period for which he turned in no receipts or detailed records of what he did. Additionally Logan was paid almost $38,000 that went to a paper corporation he set up after initially being hired as […]
LancasterZcene.com on the Lancaster scene
Christiaan Hart-Nibbrig is the editor and publisher of a new local entertainment web site at www.LancasterZcene.com. Many will recall that he was the co-publisher with Ron Harper of the ill fated weekly tabloid, The Lancaster Post. But before then Hart-Nibbrig was the founding editor of NewsLanc.com. Two issues were cause for ongoing discussion with Publisher […]
Governor to slash library funding for 2009 – 2010 Budget
Below are some of the library funding cuts that appear in Governor Edward Rendell’s proposal to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Public Library Subsidy: $74.00 million (2.3% less than current $75.75 million level) Library Access: $ 7.00 million (4.0% less than current $7.29 million level) Electronic Library Catalog: $ 3.54 million (6.6% less than current $ […]
1998 study largely ignored
According to the web site of the Lancaster Campaign, a subsidiary of the Lancaster Alliance, “Early in 1998, The Lancaster Campaign contracted with LDR International, Inc. (sold to HNTB Corp. in 2000) to create a plan to ‘stimulate the economic revitalization of the City of Lancaster by developing a community supported vision and action agenda’.” […]
Budapest and Lancaster exchange culture
The co-founders and, respectively, president and dean of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music (PAM), Michael Jamanis and his wife Fran Veri, are exploring musical education in Budapest and also giving a Gershwin concert at the Palace of the Art to an expected audience of 450, including many of the nations political and cultural leaders. Completed […]
$7.4 million for historic buildings; library fears raising $1.3
The following article was prepared in early November but, through an oversight, was never published. In response to an inquiry from NewsLanc concerning the status of the Stevens & Smith fundraising for preservation of historic buildings adjoining the Conference Center, Gail Tomlinson reports ” We have raised approximately $7.4 million to date. Most of the […]
CORRECTION to "Contrary to member’s assuarances…"
It was reported incorrectly that George K. Baum & Company was the underwriter for the issuance and remarketing of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority Hotel Room Rental Tax Revenue bonds of 2003 and 2007. The underwriter was Wachovia Capital Markets. Thomas Beckett recommended George K. Baum & Co. as a financial advisor for the […]
EDITORIAL: Ironies of two years too late
The Feb. 1 Sunday News editorial is headlined “In his debt; Gov. Rendell has spent the state into a hole. Legislators, who let him get away with it, now must rein him in, and fill in the hole.” It goes on to say that Rendell “… apparently never met a new way to spend money […]
Chapter Two: The Dream Team: Penn Square Partners
The “small local group of owners” mentioned in the Winterbottom report, negotiating to buy the historic Watt & Shand/Bon Ton building “at a fair price,” were headed by three of the twelve founding and executive committee members of the Lancaster Alliance – S. Dale High; Jack M. Buckwalter; and Rufus A. Fulton, Jr.